How to Calculate a Zi Wei Dou Shu Chart

The charting sequence is fixed. If star positions are wrong, patterns and sihua that follow will be off. The on-site tool calculates for you; it is still worth knowing what each step is doing. Virtual stars do not match the sky that night; see Astronomical parallels.

Birth data

You need birth year, month, day, and hour, on the lunar calendar. A Gregorian date must be converted first. Note gender as well.

True solar time: clock time zones, longitude, and (historically) daylight saving can push the double-hour across a boundary. A difference of a few dozen minutes can change the whole chart. Birth-place latitude and longitude should be given together.

Zi hour: 23:00 to 01:00 crosses the calendar day. 23:00 to midnight is late zi; midnight to 01:00 is early zi. Mainstream practice usually assigns late zi to the next day, so it shares the date with early zi after midnight—otherwise two births nearly 24 hours apart could get the same chart. Some schools still count late zi as the same calendar day. Near midnight, check household registration and hospital records.

Palaces, bureau, and star placement

1. Place Life Palace and Body Palace: start from the Yin palace as the first lunar month and count forward to the birth month; from that palace, count the birth hour backward for Life Palace and forward for Body Palace. Body Palace is not a thirteenth palace; it overlays one of Life, Spouse, Wealth, Travel, Career, or Happiness.
2. Set the Yin-palace stem and the five-element bureau: the year stem sets the stem of the Yin palace; stems are then arranged around the twelve palaces. The nayin of the Life Palace stem-branch sets the bureau: water 2, wood 3, metal 4, earth 5, fire 6. The bureau number also decides the age at which major luck starts; see Reading timing.
3. Place Ziwei and Tianfu: the bureau number and lunar birthday locate Ziwei; Tianfu sits opposite Ziwei.
4. Place the remaining main stars, auxiliaries and malefics, and sihua.

Fourteen main stars

Once Ziwei and Tianfu are fixed, the other twelve main stars take their places in fixed gaps.

Ziwei system (counterclockwise): Ziwei → Tianji → first empty palace → Taiyang → Wuqu → Tiantong → second empty palace → Lianzhen.

Tianfu system (clockwise): Tianfu → Taiyin → Tanlang → Jumen → Tianxiang → Tianliang → Qisha → third empty palace → Pojun.

For each star’s temperament, see Fourteen main stars.

Six auspicious and six malefic stars

Auspicious stars point to support, resources, and reputation; malefic stars point to resistance, change, and drive. Read them with main stars and palaces; do not judge a single star as lucky or unlucky.

• Zuofu, Youbi: cooperation and backup.
• Wenchang, Wenqu: learning, skill, documents.
• Tiankui, Tianyue: noblemen and patronage.
• Qingyang, Tuoluo: competition and persistence; Qingyang is sharp, Tuoluo tangled. Longer note: Qingyang and Tuoluo.
• Huoxing, Lingxing: suddenness and impulse; Huoxing is fierce, Lingxing more inward. Longer note: Huoxing and Lingxing.
• Dikong, Dijie: loss and detachment; also often seen with religion, technique, and creativity.

Sihua and shensha

The birth-year heavenly stem sets Hua Lu, Hua Quan, Hua Ke, and Hua Ji—the skeleton of dynamic reading. See Sihua. Shensha such as Hongluan, Tianxi, and Huagai add detail (romance, solitude, and the like). They should not override main stars and sihua.

Skip the manual calculations or check your work with the free Zi Wei Dou Shu calculator.